Leave the Leaves ...

... for guys like these. PLEASE! Our pollinators seek a place of cool, dark solitude in which to overwinter as a pupa, usually in the leaf litter. This is an important developmental stage of their metamorphosis before they hatch into the adult forms we recognize as pollinators of our plants and crops.

This green guy, with 'anal prolegs' (ugh), is the larval stage of the Prominent moth. It pupates in soil or in cocoons on the ground, so when we disturb and mulch leaves, we often destroy this fragile life stage. This little guy looks bulbous and filled with fluid, but I do like the leaf-like patterns on its skin.

Can YOU leave the leaves (or most of them, or SOME of them) till spring when critters have hatched? They're important!

Guy Fawkes

On this U.S. election day, waiting with bated breath to hear what our country-men and -women have asked for, I wondered whether it's ominous that this election day falls on November 5, the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot in Great Britain? 

His mission in 1605 was to blow up the houses of parliament in retaliation for the protestant government's treatment of Catholics, but his plan was thwarted and he was tried and sentenced to the gallows.

Similarities, anyone? Sound familiar? Parallels are scarily obvious, though the details may differ - have we not learned anything from history? Or grown from what has happened in the past? Do we not see ourselves repeatedly, misguidedly, focusing on our differences, and not on our common humanity? Creating division is a weapon to manipulate and manage the masses!

Wondering, wondering (terrified) what the outcome might be ... it's going to be a long week.

Craft & calligraphy by dsb

Muted Beauty

The browns, bronzes and yellows of autumn interspersed with green makes for a beautiful, though somber, color contrast. It has its own beauty and is pleasing to the eye, though I think November is not usually recognized for its splendor. I think it's subtlety is overshadowed by the more dramatic, "look at me" offerings in other months. 😀 

Cat Appreciation

Marshmallowy soft,

Warm like molten candle wax -

Catatonic bliss!